Oscar-Nominated Shorts Go Long, Passing $1M In Specialty Box Office

Oscar nominees, including the shortest ones, still reigned over the specialty box office here in the back end of awards season, though they did so with somewhat diminished luster in an otherwise mostly unremarkable weekend.

The most notable glitter may actually have been reserved for the annual collection of Oscar-nominated shorts, which grabbed a share of the spotlight as it passed $1M in just over a week of release.

As for other nominees, after receiving a post-nom box-office bump, most Specialty titles heading to the Dolby Theater two weeks from now have pared back their release slate after capitalizing on the adulation.

Best Picture nominees Birdman, Whiplash, Boyhood, The Theory Of Everything and The Imitation Game have, not surprisingly, shed runs versus the previous week.

Short-form titles seldom get much attention at the box office. But for a decade now, Magnolia and Shorts HD have grouped the Oscar-nominated shorts together for a theatrical run in what has become something of an Oscar-season tradition.

The 2015 Oscar Shorts bowed in 110 theaters last week and added 35 more runs for week 2. The shorts grossed $460K over the weekend, averaging $3,172 ($3,727 PTA last weekend in 110 theaters).

“This is the fastest we’ve reached $1M in ten years of doing this program,” Magnolia said in a release. “It took 10 days [to reach that mark] when it usually takes 13 or 14 days.”

Magnolia and Shorts HD will add 100 more runs over next week’s Presidents Day holiday weekend.

Magnolia opened dance documentary Ballet 422 in two New York locations over the weekend. The film by veteran cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes grossed $26K, averaging $13K.

Freestyle Releasing opened Old Fashioned in a trio of locations, grossing $40,758 ($13,586 PTA). The company did not report numbers for its other opener, One Small Hitch.

Cohen Media Group added 10 runs for its Oscar-nominated foreign-language feature Timbuktu. The Mauritanian/French production grossed just over $80K in 14 theaters, averaging $5K. The film by Abderrahmane Sissako opened last week, grossing $50K ($12,502 average).

China Lion added one run for Running Man. The film, which is the big-screen version of a popular Korean and Chinese reality series, opened in 20 theaters last week grossing $205K ($10,250 PTA).

Among other Oscar-nominated films, Sony Classics added 51 runs for Still Alice‘s fourth weekend in theaters. It grossed $881,397, averaging $6,529. The film, whose Julianne Moore seems a lock for the Best Actress Oscar, played 84 theaters last week, grossing $622K ($7,405 average).

SPC’s Best Picture nominees Whiplash lost 46 locations from the prior week. Still, the feature was in 479 theaters in its 18th weekend of release, grossing $771,514 ($1,611 PTA).

Another SPC film, Foxcatcher, whose Bennett Miller is up for Best Director, lost 128 runs in its 13th weekend. The title grossed $180,680 in 174 locations, averaging just north of $1K, though that is up from last week’s $908 PTA. The film grossed $274K last week in 302 theaters.

Fox Searchlight clipped 310 theaters from one of its Best Picture nominees, Birdman in its 17th weekend. Still the film by Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu (the subject of career retrospectives in both NYC and Los Angeles this week) played 666 theaters grossing $1.35M ($2,027 PTA). It has now cumed over $35.18M. With Iñárritu winning the DGA award last night (the DGA winner has gone on to win the Oscar all but a handful of times), the film may get an extra box-office boost heading into the awards-season stretch run.

Focus shed 203 theaters for The Theory Of Everythingin its 14th weekend. The multiple nominee grossed over $1.022M in 602 locations, averaging just under $1,700. It has now cumed over $32M. And the longest-running specialty title, Boyhood, lost 82 theaters vs. the previous weekend. It grossed $47,135 in 55 locations ($857 PTA). Its cume is now over $25.14M.

1 Comment

Jake L • on Feb 8, 2015 11:36 am

Counting the short programs as a single release in terms of grosses seems like a bit of a cheat to me. Each category (Animated, Live-Action and Documentary) is screened separately, meaning separate admission prices apply. I saw Live-Action and Animated last week (Documentary is not booked here), and I had to pay twice to do so. If I have to pay twice, how is it fair to tabulate it as a single gross? The animation and live-action programs should have separate grosses.